John Deere or Exmark Walkbehind??

I took a ride down to my local john deere dealer and they have the 36'' walkbehind mower for 2500 pluss 300 for the bagger. Also at the exmark dealer they have a 36'' walkbehind for 2499.00 This is going to be my first walkbehind. I need an oppinion on which one to get. John Deere OR Exmark Metro. Please give me your oppinions, i want to make a good choice.

I've got a JD GS30 ( 36") and have been using it all summer. I think it does a great job with the cut. It leaves nice clean lines and so far seems to be pretty reliable. However, I wish I would not have bought a fixed deck. With the GS30 you've really got to change some bolts around if you want to change the height from say 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches. Also when I first bought it the spring for the belt drive kept breaking ( easy fix but a pain in the A** ). Finally the JD dealer put a bigger spring on and haven't hadf any trouble. Over all I'm happy with the mower and Think I'll stick with JD.

I have a 15 year old JD 36" WB. I love it. It cuts better than any other mower I have or used. It leaves great stripes with no kit. There are virtually no clippings. Not a lot of overspray in landscape beds. And the deck stays clean. I like exmark, but they dont compare to JD IMO.